-And I've never ordered any Japanese imports before--what's a good import site to order these from, or should I just wait for them to hit Ebay?

-If I want doubles of a certain character, would it be best to order a full set, and then try to pick up the double separately, or should I just order two sets, and then sell off the rest of the second set?

These things remind me of those MicroMachine heads from a few years ago--the little clam-shell type things that had mini dioramas in them. I liked those so much, I glued little magnets on the backs of 'em, and had those up on the 'fridge for a while. These things are obviously much nicer, though.

HLJ has been good for most of us ordering Kubrick's. Dale orders a fair bit of other stuff from them as well. I've also ordered other Tomy items and have been completely satisfied with them. Shipping is fair for overseas.

I'd grab two sets and sell off the spares. JMO of course, but easier than trying to chase one down. I guess it depends on what the spares are. If it's the mystery piece, two sets for sure. Jawa or Tusken maybe ebay as they might not be the hot pieces.

HLJ has been good for most of us ordering Kubrick's. Dale orders a fair bit of other stuff from them as well. I've also ordered other Tomy items and have been completely satisfied with them. Shipping is fair for overseas.

I'd grab two sets and sell off the spares. JMO of course, but easier than trying to chase one down. I guess it depends on what the spares are. If it's the mystery piece, two sets for sure. Jawa or Tusken maybe ebay as they might not be the hot pieces.

Well, it was the Tusken I was wanting a double of, actually. Hmmm. . .

The Tomy mini-dioramas (is this a replacement for them??) were blind packaged as well. I suppose this goes over well in Japan where the retailer cracks the cases and puts them out. Fun of the chase and all that. With the first set of mini-dioramas, I obtained mine through trade with a fellow in Japan. He had the worst time getting the R2/3PO set for me. I traded initially for 7 or 8 unopened boxes. I received 4 of the 5 dioramas and he was good enough to go hunting for them. I don't know how many he bought, but quite a few until the elusive droids showed up. It worked out well in the end as the value of series 1 climbed and he was able to sell them all.

For series 2, rather than going through the grief and cost ($22 to send a small package to Japan) I opted to order a case from HLJ.com (sorry 'bout that) in the hopes of getting a complete set. The case contained 10 pieces, supposedly randomly packed. Upon opening all 10 pieces it turned out that I got 2 complete sets. Not sure if the packing is a little less random than indicated or I just lucked out.

I'm surprised to see boxes of 8 for a series of 8. The paranoid side of me is concerned. I like them all, but could live without some. The optimist says all 8 will be in a single case and the randomness comes in Japan when retailers move them from boxes to diplay shelving, somebody walks in and buys one or two. The next eight you grab could be duplicates.

I believe I'll snag these as well, but now I'm torn as to what to do. One or two cases? The price is not that prohibitive and landed I can probably get two boxes of these for the same price as a case of Kubricks. Hmm....

Yeah, I'm thinking about ordering two boxes as well--should get at least one complete set out of those, and whatever duplicates I have left over should be pretty easy to get rid of, either by trading or selling. . .

So, it's April now, and these things are supposed to be available this month, so I checked the website above, and instead of saying "preorder" (or whatever it said before), now it says "Order Stop", with a mean-lookin' blue X.

So, for those that have ordered this type of crap before, what's the deal? Is this place going to be taking any more orders? Are there other good sites that will have these things available? Will I just have to get 'em on Ebay now? Am I totally S.O.L.? Can I ask any more annoying questions?

I have had this order stop with HLJ before. You can click on the words "Order Stop" next to the X & it will open another window.

This is the explanation:

This is a new item that has not yet been released by the manufacturer. We have already taken more orders than we expect to be able to fill. No further orders will be accepted until supplies are confirmed when the product is released.

Out-of-stock items are displayed with squares (in-stock items with circles). Blue squares with a white X indicate items that have not yet been released, but for which we are no longer accepting orders because we expect supplies to be limited.

In some cases, even prior to release, our suppliers inform us that the amount of a new product we can buy may be limited. If we take more orders for something that we can reasonably expect to fill, we will place that item in this "order stop" status until we can confirm how many pieces will be available at the time of release. If we fill all pre-orders, and still have stock remaining, then the item will be put on regular, in-stock status and we'll begin accepting orders again.

There just overwhelmed with the pre-orders & stopped taking any more untill they get the stock in. Hopefully your orders will be fine unlike my Kubrick cases that got cancelled!

Well, that's the whole thing, is that I never got around to putting any orders in--I was just planning to wait until they were available and in stock before I ordered any and now it looks like (at least at this site), I won't be able to order anything.

The thing I find with HLJ is if they have a pre-order, best to jump on it. I do that with all my collectibles from them. The last order I got came in & was filled & as soon as they shipped it, it was discontinued.

They still might have them when they ship there orders out. All depends on there supplier. Hope you get a set.

Just another reason for you to hate me Matt. I ordered mine as soon as the Tomy mini dioramas were put up, hopefully saving on shipping, but we'll see. You're welcome to any duplicates I have, but a box of 8 from a series of 8 with Tomy usually means complete set, even if the boxes are packed blind.

In my personal opinion it's wrong for grown men to buy magnets that are engineered for refrigerators. It may not be in anyone elses opinion, and quite frankly, I think there is some defective reasoning to be accounted for on this board.